Protesters harassed four Israeli coalition lawmakers outside their homes on Monday in a bid to block them from reaching the Knesset, where the first bill in the government’s judicial reform package was set for the first of three readings required to pass into law.
In one instance, members of the Ahim L’Neshek (Brothers in Arms) group blocked the car of Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionist Party) in the town of Pnei Kedem, located in the Gush Etzion region just south of Jerusalem.
Concurrently, demonstrators from the Block the Revolution organization surrounded the apartment of MK Tally Gotliv (Likud) in Givat Shmuel, linking arms to prevent her from exiting.
Police were called to the scene and dispersed the protesters.
Protesters also surrounded the home in Ashkelon of Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud) as well as the Ramat Gan home of Education Minister Yoav Kisch (Likud).
At least eight people were reportedly arrested for harassing the legislators.
Preventing lawmakers from reaching the Knesset to vote “isn’t a legitimate demonstration,” tweeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee last week voted to send the bill for its first reading in the full plenum. The legislation has been formulated as an amendment to Basic Law: Judiciary and would give the government control over the Judicial Selection Committee with five of the panel’s nine members, and only a simple majority needed to appoint judges to Israeli courts.
Opponents of the change argue that it would give the coalition too much power, whereas proponents have pointed to the U.S. Senate, which approves Supreme Court justices by simple majority, often along partisan lines.
Before last week’s committee vote, opposition lawmakers shouted down members of the coalition, with some having to be physically restrained. Many parliamentarians were ejected from the meeting.
Protest organizers have declared Monday a “national day of struggle,” and called for a large rally outside the Knesset along with marches in several cities.
At last week’s mass demonstration outside parliament, opposition leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party slammed the Israeli government as “corrupt” and “extremist.”
“They hear our strength and our commitment. They pretend they don’t hear and that they’re not afraid—but they hear and are afraid…. They’re trembling as rulers have always trembled when they discovered that there were people facing them who were not ready to give up.
“We will fight in the streets, we’ll fight until we win,” said Lapid.
The same day, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said, “This is the history of the world. Countries become dictatorships through the use of democratic tools…. Countries do not become democratic again, except with bloodshed.”
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for the protest movement against the government to move to the next stage, one fueled by violent confrontation.
“What is needed is to move to the next stage, the stage of war, and war is not waged with speeches. War is waged in a face-to-face battle, head-to-head and hand-to-hand, and that is what will happen here,” he said in an interview with DemocraTV.
In response, Netanyahu urged opposition leaders to stop leading Israel into chaos.
“I call on the leaders of the opposition: Stop this. Stop deliberately dragging the country into anarchy. Get over yourself. Show responsibility and leadership because you’re doing the exact opposite,” the prime minister said in a video posted to social media.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Rothman subsequently called on leaders of the opposition to meet at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to discuss the government’s judicial reform program.
Lapid rejected the overture, saying he would only agree to meet if the proposed legislation was paused.
The government’s plan includes changing the way judges are selected so that the Knesset members will have majority say on the Judicial Selection Committee; passing an “override clause,” a law that would give legislators the power to reverse, or “override,” the Supreme Court when it strikes down laws; abolishing the legal justification of “reasonableness” by which the court can cancel Knesset decisions; and empowering ministers to hire and fire their own legal advisers.
Netanyahu has described as “baseless” claims by critics that the proposals would mark the end of the country’s democracy, and vowed to implement the plan “responsibly.”
